Railroad frogs



Jan. 21, 1964 A. L. VISSAT 3,118,642

RAILROAD FROGS Filed Oct. 27, 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet l JTTUQ/VEVS A. L. VISSAT RAILROAD FROGS m mmN Jan. 21, 1964 Filed Oct. 27, 1961 Jan. 21, 1964 Filed Oct. 27, 1961 A. L. VISSAT 3,1 18,642

RAILROAD FROGS 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 I NVEN TOR. ANT/701V) Z V/J'J/T ITTOQIVIFKS United States Patent 3,118,642 RAHJRGAD FRGGS Anthony L. Vissat, R0. Box 91, Herminie, Pa. Fiied Oct. 27, 1961, Ser. No. 148,274 4 Claims. (Cl. 246468) This invention relates to railroad frogs and in particular it concerns improvements adapted to be applied to railroad frogs presently in use in the railroad industry.

Literally millions of railroad frogs are in use in the rail system of the United States today. Characteristically, these frogs have guard rails more or less paralleling the continuous main tracks associated with the frog to prevent the car wheels that must pass from the wing rails to the point of a frog from jumping the track. For a new frog and with a train having essentially perfect wheels, the present operation is satisfactory. However, few if any trains have all perfect wheels and this results in vibration and impact on the point as the cars move over this frog. Accordingly, the point of the frog wears out despite the fact that it is made of hard and tough manganese steel at great expense. As this happens, even perfect wheels contribute to the destruction of the point.

Railroad frogs are generally made of manganese steel, an expensive steel primarily due to the difliculty of working it. Simple guard rails are expensive also, yet they are needed in conventional railway frogs to aid in avoiding derailment due to worn frogs and wheels.

It is the primary object of the present invention to provide means for use in conjunction with known railroad frogs whereby the wear on the point rail of a frog is minimized and such expedients as guard rails and the like can be omitted.

It is a further object of the invention to improve presently available railroad frogs to sharply improve safety and materially reduce expense in connection with the frogs.

Other objects will be apparent from the drawing and description which follow hereinafter.

The invention wfll be best understood by reference to the attached drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a railroad frog and auxiliary means of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a view taken along line II--II of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a partial view such as in FIG. 2, in which both auxiliary rails are in a position intermediate the operating positions;

FIG. 4 is a view along line IV-IV of FIG. 3; and

FIG. 5 is a view along line V-V of FIG. 3.

Considered broadly, the present invention involves providing auxiliary short pieces of rail that, alternately, lie or are seated in the railbed between the wing rails and the point of the point rail in conventional frogs. The end of the auxiliary rails at the frog is cut on an angle so that a continuous rail, for practical purposes, is made from a wing rail through the end of the auxiliary rail to the appropriate side of the point rail. Means are provided to seat one of these rails at a time while maintaining the other auxiliary rail in a position out of the way, or in the inoperative position, so that trains can pass freely. In this simple fashion, the gap presently in railroad frogs is effectively eliminated and a continuous rail is presented to the wheels thereby providing greater safety while avoiding undue wear and impact destruction on the point in railroad frogs. Moreover, since this invention provides essentially two continuous rails in each of the directions at a railroad frog, the auxiliary guard rails heretofore essential to protect against derailment are no longer needed and a further significant savings in capital expenditure and upkeep is available.

Referring now to FIG. 1, the railroad frog shown comprises a first main rail that is laid parallel to the left 3,i:i i-Z Patented Jan. 21, 1964 "ice point rail 12 of the frog. A second main rail 14 at a divergent angle from the first rail 10 is laid parallel to the right point rail 16. The other significant portions of the frog comprise the left wing rail 18 and its divergently laid companion right wing rail 20. These rails are, of course, attached to ties 21 in the usual manner and the manner of attaching such rails in a track system is not changed for purposes of this invention. For purposes of further identification, we note that a gap 22a exists between the point 24 of the frog and the knee 26 of the right wing rail 20. In FIG. 1, that gap is closed as will be evident hereinafter. A similar gap 22b exists between the point 24 and the knee 28 of the left wing rail 18.

The essential object of the present invention is to close those gaps at appropriate times. For the foregoing object, I provide two short sections of what might be termed auxiliary rails. The first is a left auxiliary filler rail 32 and the other is a right auxiliary filler rail 34 These are supported on a U-shaped bracket 36 (see FIGS. 2 and 3); the U-shaped bracket 36 has its bottom portion underlying the point and wing rails and its side portions or arms 37 and 38 extending upwardly therefrom. The auxiliary filler rails 32 and 34 are rigidly supported at the top of the arm sections 37 and 38 of the U-bracket 36 by beam members 41 and 42, respectively.

The bracket 36 and rail sections 32 and 34 are movably supported on a switch means generally indicated by the numeral 45. The switch means 45 includes a switch handle 48 pivotally connected by a pin 49 to a lever arm 50 that is essentially parallel to the ties 21; translational motion is imparted to arm 50 by the switch handle 48. The lever arm 50 is pivotally joined, at pin 52, to a second lever arm 54- that also extends parallel to ties 21 and is sufiiciently long to extend under both wing rails 18 and 20 where they are adjacent the point rails.

In the embodiment shown, the second lever arm 54 is actually a pair of rigid members 54a and 54b that are spaced from one another at least the width of the U- bracket 36, so that the latter can freely pass up and down between those rigid members, as will be explained hereinafter. Rigid members 54a and 54b are joined at one end by pin 52 to lever arm 50 and are rigidly joined at the opposite end to one another as by a block 56 rigidly attached to each. A base member 58 extends under lever arm 54 to the limits to which that arm can be moved parallel to the ties 21. The base member 58 serves to support arm 54 during most of its translational movement, and to limit the depth below the rails to which the arm 54- moves. Base member 58 has a central opening of a size suficient to permit the U-bracket 36 to move up and down freely, if desired or necessary because of design considerations. Stops 59 and 69 that are beveled to guide lever arm 54 up and down are fixedly attached to the base member 58 at the limits of the translational travel of lever arm 54.

As noted, the U-bracket 36 is supported on the lever system by two pairs 6262a and 64-64(1 of lever arms. Thus, the first pair of lever arms 62-62a is pivotally mounted by pins 66 to lever arm 54 and similarly mounted at the opposite end by pin 68 to side arm 37 of the U-bracket 36. The other pair of lever arms 6464a, and which is most clearly shown in FIG. 4, is pivotally joined by pins 76 to lever arm 54 and by pin 72 at the other end to the right arm 38 of the U-bracket 36.

Each lever arm of the two pairs of lever arms -6252a and 64-6411 has a central slot 74 (-see FIG. 3). The slots 74 in each pair of lever arms register with one another. A pin 76 that is anchored at each of its ends to the ties 21, extends through the slots 74 in lever arms 62-62a while a similar pin 78 also anchored to ties 21 extends through central registering slots 74 in lever arms 64-64(1. The pairs of lever arms 6262a and 6464a both pivot about and s'lidably engage pins 76 and 78 in their essential motion.

The purpose of the lever system described is to raise the auxiliary rails above the top of the wing and point rails, to displace those rails, while raised, from side to side, and to lower the auxiliary rails so that one will seat in the space between a wing and point rail to close the natural gap and the other will simultaneously be lowered between a wing and main {line rail to the inoperative position. The operation of the structure for that purpose is best observed in FIGS. 2 and 3 where dotted lines are provided to show various positions.

Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, when the switch handle 48 is in a position to move the lever arm 59 as far to the right as it will go, the second lever arm 54 also is at its right extremity and is therefore in a raised position on beveled stop 69. With the lever arm 54 in that position, the bottom pivots 66 and 70 of pairs of lever arms 6262a and 6464a also are as far as they can go. In moving to that position, the lever arm pairs also slidably moved with respect to the fulcruming pins 76 and '78, so that the tops of those arms are in the low position. In that position, auxiliary rail 34 is seated between the point rail 16 and the right wing rail 20 While the other auxiliary rail 32 is to the left of left wing rail 18, as shown in FIG. 1 as well as by the heavy lines in FIG. 2.

When it is desired to remove auxiliary rail 34 and seat rail 32, the handle 48 is moved to advance the lever arms 50 and 54 to the left. As that occurs, the lever arm pairs 6262a and 6464a slide slightly to the left while simultaneously rotating around pins 76 and 78. Thus, the movement of the ends of those arms at pins 68 and '72 is essentially straight upward and then in an are as shown by the arrows 86 in FIG. 2 to the right. Since the bracket 36, which supports rails 32 and 34, is attached to those lever arms, it is evident that those rails move in the same general path. Accordingly, rail 34 is unseated and moved to the right while rail 32 is raised above the level of wing rail 18 and advanced to where it can be seated. When auxiliary rail 32 is above its seating space between the point rail and wing rail 18, the left end of lever arm 54 is at the base of beveled stop 59. As the lever 54 moves up that stop, the rotational and sliding movement of the lever arm pairs 62-62a and 6464a causes the ends at pins 68 and 72 to move downwardly to seat rail 32 while lowering rail 34 out of the Way between wing rail 20 and the main line rail 14.

In that simple manner, the gap that exists in conventional railroad frogs is effectively and eificiently closed, thereby resulting in substantial safety improvement. Sideto-side movement of an auxiliary rail is prevented by the point and wing rails that define its seat. Longitudinal movement upon impact of wheels is prevented by stops 90 that are in the seat areas just at the end of the seated auxiliary rails.

It will be apparent that many changes can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. For example, a cam arid track can be used on lever slide 54 to cause the proper movement of the bracket for seating and unseating. In place of the lever arms 62 -6251 and 64-64(1, cams attached to the bracket and guided by an appropriately designed track where cam movement is actuated by a lever can be used.

In accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes, I have explained the principle of my invention and have illustrated and described what I now consider to represent its best embodiment. However, I desire to have it understood that, within the scope of the appended claims,

i the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically illustrated and described.

I claim:

1. In combination with a railroad frog having point and wing rails, a bracket about said frog having a bottom portion extending under said point and wing rails and having arms extending upwardly by said wing rails, an auxiliary rail on each of said bracket arms, each of the auxiliary rails being essentially parallel to the wing and point rail with which it is most closely associated, a slide means located below the horizontal plane of the wing and point rails and operatively connected to said bracket to first raise said bracket, then move it laterally until one of said auxiliary rails is aligned with the space between a point and wing rail and then to lower said bracket to seat said rail.

2. The combination with a railroad frog including a point rail, spaced wing rails about said point rail and main line rails each parallelinga difierent side of said point rail, of a generally U-shaped bracket having a bottom portion extending under said wing and point rails and having spaced arm portions extending upwardly between said wing and main line rails, an auxiliary rail suspended from the top of each of the arms of the bracket, the top of each of said arms of said bracket being spaced so that one of said rails is seated between the point rail and a wing rail while the other auxiliary rail is in an inoperative position between the other wing rail and a main line rail, and means to cause said bracket to raise upwardly, then laterally and then move downwardly whereby the seated rail is moved to the inoperative position and the other rail is seated.

3. The combination with a railroad frog including a point rail, and wing rails spaced about said point rail defining gaps between the knee areas of said wing rails and the point of said point rail, of two auxiliary rails each having a biased end to fill a gap between the point and the knee of one of said wing rails, one of said auxiliary rails being seated between the point and a wing rail while the other is in an inoperative position between the other wing rail and the corresponding main line rail, a U-shaped bracket attached to said auxiliary rails, and slidable means operatively connected to said bracket to cause said bracket to rise upwardly, move laterally and then downwardly .to displace the seated rail and seat the other auxiliary rail from its inoperative position.

4. A subcombination for use with a railroad frog including point and wing rails, comprising a U-shaped bracket having a bottom port-ion to extend under the point and wing rails and arms to extend upwardly at each side of the wing rails, an auxiliary rail piece attached to each of the arms of said bracket and spaced from one another a distance at least equal to that from a side of a point rail to the other side of the opposite wing rail of a frog with which it is to be used, andmeans operatively connected to said bracket to sequentially raise, move laterally and lower said bracket to alternately seat said auxiliary rail pieces in the frog gaps.

References fired in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

1. IN COMBINATION WITH A RAILROAD FROG HAVING POINT AND WING RAILS, A BRACKET ABOUT SAID FROG HAVING A BOTTOM PORTION EXTENDING UNDER SAID POINT AND WING RAILS AND HAVING ARMS EXTENDING UPWARDLY BY SAID WING RAILS, AN AUXILIARY RAIL ON EACH OF SAID BRACKET ARMS, EACH OF THE AUXILIARY RAILS BEING ESSENTIALLY PARALLEL TO THE WING AND POINT RAIL WITH WHICH IT IS MOST CLOSELY ASSOCIATED, A SLIDE MEANS LOCATED BELOW THE HORIZONTAL PLANE OF THE WING AND POINT RAILS AND OPERATIVELY CONNECTED TO SAID BRACKET TO FIRST RAISE SAID BRACKET, THEN MOVE IT LATERALLY UNTIL ONE OF SAID AUXILIARY RAILS IS ALIGNED WITH THE SPACE BETWEEN A POINT AND WING RAIL AND THEN TO LOWER SAID BRACKET TO SEAT SAID RAIL. 